Upgrading from Mojave to Big Sur

[Saad-M]

Once Big Sur is released will it be possible to upgrade from Mojave straight to Big Sur whilst skipping Catalina. Or would I have to upgrade to Catalina first?


Saad.

 

[LlamaLarry]

You can go right to Big Sur.

 

[Hessel89]

Not a problem at all. As a matter of fact I'm downloading the latest Big Sur Beta rightnow from Mojave.

 

[honestone33]

Yes, you can "upgrade" from Mojave to Big Sur. But three things to consider:

1. You need to make sure that all your third party software is compatible with Big Sur. This site can help you with that:

Application Compatibility Table — RoaringApps

Crowd-sourced application compatibility for macOS, iOS and Windows.

roaringapps.com

2. It might be better to do a clean, fresh installation of Big Sur, instead of just upgrading "in place". That's because you are skipping an intermediate OS, Catalina. I've read both positive and negative stories about skipping one (or more) mac OS with an upgrade. Myself, I always top a clean, fresh installation of each new mac OS. Helps me avoid any issues.

3. It's best to wait until at least the .1 version of the new OS comes out before upgrading. That's because the initial version typically contains a number of bugs. Again, though, the version you upgrade to will depend on #1 above.

Of course, it goes without saying that you need to making backups frequently to an external device. You are doing that, correct?

 

[Hessel89]

Naturally the sensible thing to do is to not actually ''upgrade'' in the literal sense but simply make a new APFS volume for Big Sur.

When making a new APFS volume you can simply set the ''reserved size'' of your new partition at 1GB and the max size at whichever you want, by clicking ''Size Options''. This way Big Sur won't take up any of your valuable space and if you've decided you no longer like it you can simply remove that partition with one mouse click.

 

[honestone33]

Naturally the sensible thing to do is to not actually ''upgrade'' in the literal sense but simply make a new APFS volume for Big Sur.

When making a new APFS volume you can simply set the ''reserved size'' of your new partition at 1GB and the max size at whichever you want, by clicking ''Size Options''. This way Big Sur won't take up any of your valuable space and if you've decided you no longer like it you can simply remove that partition with one mouse click.

Actually it might be better to test Big Sur on a separate external device before deciding whether to "upgrade" to it or not. Myself I will test Big Sur on an external SSD although I will wait until at least V11.1 arrives. As it is, some of my important/critical third party applications will not be compatible with OS 11.x at that time, but that is fine. I can still test it using other applications. Based on recent history, that typically includes running Thunderbird for EMail, and a browser (usually Brave). I also see where 1Password, VLC, Quicken 2017, Transmission, and AppCleaner are all compatible right now. I suspect that list will expand by the time V11.1 of Big Sur arrives.

Due to when Tech Tool Pro will have a Big Sur version available (and will, most likely, be the last of the third party apps I use which will be compatible), that means I would need to wait until V11.4 of Big Sur is released before making the complete move from Catalina to Big Sur. I can thus test intermediate releases (v11.2 and v11.3) on my external SSD.